Rogers keeping Blue Jays all to itself

The biggest shame of what seems to be the most hopeful ending to a Toronto Blue Jays season since the World Series glory years is how few people across Canada are getting to see it.

Of the 30 games on Toronto’s schedule from Sept. 1 through the end of the season, 18 were slated to be broadcast on Sportsnet ONE.

That is no big deal for Rogers cable customers currently getting a free preview of the newly launched specialty channel, owned and operated by the same corporate masters as the baseball team.

But when viewers outside the Rogers umbrella tune in to Sportsnet for baseball, they find the Orioles, Red Sox and Mariners while the Blue Jays are off on a channel they do not get.

“To be very frank, we’re very happy where we’re going with this,” Blue Jays team president Paul Beeston said. “We want to get 162 games on [television], we have 162 games and it’s been made available to every one of the cable companies. The fact that they haven’t chosen to pick up on the offer, we really can’t do anything about it.

Beeston points to expanded Blue Jays coverage, the addition of exhibition games and having a place to put games that would otherwise be pre-empted by other programming — such as regional hockey or national basketball broadcasts — as reasons why Sportsnet ONE is essential.

“For the short-term pain, it’s a long-term win for the baseball fan,” said Beeston.

Rest assured, Rogers will make out pretty well, too. Once a deal is reached with other cable providers, the company that owns the team will re reaping the rewards of the subscriber fee.

The question is when that will be?

“We’re looking into the possibility of offering it to our clients,” Bell TV spokesperson Julie Smithers said, reflecting the main response of the big cable companies that answered queries about Sportsnet ONE. Those companies would probably prefer the focus to be on Rogers’ role in games disappearing from existing cable packages.

It is a reversal of a recent dispute between Rogers and TSN2 — owned by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. stakeholder CTVglobemedia — over Toronto Raptors broadcasts. In that case, Rogers chose not to not pick up the new channel initially, infuriating those who wanted to watch Canada’s basketball team.

“[Rogers is] trying to get more value from [its] investment in the Blue Jays,” said Ian Morrison, a spokesperson for the Canadian television watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. “From the point of view of the public, the public is being held hostage in a business struggle between these organizations.”

The interesting part of this is how Rogers is now using the Blue Jays as a corporate hammer of sorts, much like MLSE has long used the Leafs, Raptors and every other item in its arsenal to soak up cash from Toronto sports fans.

It might be good news for Blue Jays fans who know their team matters again. But the organization appears to be more and more like MLSE when it comes to extracting every last dollar from its properties.

Said Morrison: “I’m sure the people who run the Rogers television stations are leveraging the demand for the Blue Jays in hopes that it will force cable companies into taking their terms for the channels that will net Rogers more money.”